After effects of the Australian bushfires - a patch of barren earth where hay bales caught alight, the soil can’t sustain new growth
Posted Aug 18, 2020, 6:35 AM UTC
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Yup. Same thing going down the Clyde mountain near Batemans Bay. So much green has come back, but the area that burnt so ridiculously hot has no green.
Our country was shaped by burns. The Aboriginals used it as the most amazing tool to cultivate and enrich the land - but it was never as hot as this. Our regular back-burning by the RFS is hotter than traditional burns too. We have so much to learn.
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Didn't the Aboriginals use fire as a hunting tool, which helped control the landscape?
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Yeah, but there weren’t hay bales or other high density heavily combustible materials sitting around. The lush green area surrounding it was burnt too but it’s managed to come back because the heat was able to disperse on the surface.
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You can’t burn nutrients out of the soil. In fact plants will grow in ashes or volcanic soil.
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I’m not a botanist, but my understanding is that plants need organic and inorganic nutrients in order to grow - volcanoes enrich the soil by dragging up inorganic nutrients, but plants still need organic matter (nitrogenous products/organic matter breakdown) in order to grow. If you have ever been to Hawaii (the big island), you can see the most recent lava flows are pretty barren. You have to wait until leaf litter from surrounding areas seed the now cold lava flows with organic compounds before anything will grow. So while the inorganic nutrients may still be there, the organic matter has been completely denatured by the intense heat. (Edit) I think there are specialist plants that may start the process of seeding organic matter on a bare minimum though.
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Hmmm, that's interesting we use to burn our fields every year "prescribed burn" and they always came back greener. But I see what your saying about a hot spot like that burning all the nutrients out. Looks like you will have to replace the soil !! Thanks for sharing!
Exactly this seemed strange to me because it is a well know method since man started agriculture.
Slash-and-burn agriculture, also called fire-fallow cultivation, is a farming method that involves the cutting and burning of plants in a forest or woodland to create a field called a swidden. The method begins by cutting down the trees and woody plants in an area. The downed vegetation of, or "slash", is then left to dry, usually right before the rainiest part of the year. Then, the biomass is burned, resulting in a nutrient-rich layer of ash which makes the soil fertile , as well as temporarily eliminating weed and pest species .
This was actually a friend of mine, she doesn’t use reddit. But yeah, all the surrounding area where it is now lush and green was burnt too, I think the heat from the hay bales was just too intense.
It’s almost like a ready made fire break in a way!
Seems they need to try doing things reverse, i forgot they are down under..